68 panel - a long story short ish

[metz]

As expected, there would still surface some rust problems. And since my dad has got a MIG, it was good to start doing some proper work myself.

I guess this is a pretty common problem.

Floor cut out:

And some more cutting:

Support pieces going back in:

And the floor tacked in place:

Also found a pretty big dent that we tried to correct as best we could:

Floor welded up and dent a lot better:

Not a perfect job, but happy enough with the result.

[metz]

So we're now in November last year. The bus is in my hometown 1,5h from where I live, but with a car to get there, and a nice place to work, things were going smoother than ever.

One of the many scraping and cleaning jobs to come. The engine box was covered in tectyl and grime.

Spare wheel well has seen better days. Rusty and a couple of small holes.

Tedious work, but eventually satisfying.

[metz]

So here's a picture dump of a lot of different small things from November and December.

A job we did years ago was to cut out the drivers side seatbelt mount, fix it and weld it back in. Unfortunately we never primed it proberly, so it looked like this. Surface rust only, so a quick fix.

The other side was pretty bad, so we cut it out and fixed it like we did on the other side back in the day:

Tried the wheels. I've got a narrowed beam coming, but I'm not sure yet to how the best way is to narrow the rear. Any input is welcomed.

Passenger door had nasty crack. Before:

After:

Not a bad place to work:

One of the most time consuming, boring and exhausting jobs of all through this project must be scraping of tectyl. Such a mess, but it has to be done.

Two mates came down one day to help out - greatly appreciated.

[metz]

Got to have a good bulk of work squeezed in between Christmas and New years. Among a bunch of small jobs here and there, the most notable one was going over the floors. The rear had previously been done with Brunox, but it wasn't holding up well. So after some research I opted for POR15.

Probably found 10-15 holes that I didn't need. So first I went over the hole floor hammering it to correct shape, welding up holes and grinding.

Holes be gone:

Then a bunch of hours with a wire brush and other tools to remove what I could of paint and rust.

Finally, I used the POR15 cleaner/degreaser and the metal prep. You could really see it opening the metal.

Two coats on:

Done:

Happy with the back I went ahead with the front. Same procedure:

First coat:

Done:

Quite happy to finally be able to SEE some progress and adding stuff, not just scraping, cutting, grinding etc. So I wrapped up 2016 on a high – still, the stuff left to do before paint was quite overwhelming, and my time in my dads garage was over for now, so we moved it back to where I've stored it previously, but this time the plan was that I worked on it there.

[metz]

So, over to 2017. After moving the bus to the new place, I went down a weekend to keep on scraping the underbody. No pictures of that, but progress was OK. Next time I went down, I got a rather unpleasant surprise. The place it was stored had issues with leaks and weather changes, resulting in an extremely moist environment. I was so bad that my bus was completely wet. Outside, inside, under, everywhere. Having surfaces with bare metal and plaster that hadn't hardened, the problems were quite obvious. I spent a few hours wiping the bus dry and finishing up some cleaning and scraping under the battery trays.

Pretty demotivated, I didn't get a lot of work done the coming weeks. The plan had been to start priming and rust proofing the underbody, but it didn't feel safe to do more work in a cold and wet environment. After a while, the spot at my dad's garage opened again, so it was up on the flatbed trailer once more – and this time I remembered to snap some pictures in daylight. Like you can see, we've also started sanding the body.

[metz]

Safely back in the warm garage, it was full gas to get it ready for some primer. There were a couple of problem areas I wanted to sort out with POR15 for some peace of mind.

I dug through dirt and plaster to find a windshield edge had seen better days.

I cleaned and brushed it thoroughly before welding it up as best I could.

Then prepped for POR15.

And coats on.

On the rear it was pretty much the same procedure. It been rusting of the left side, so we had sand blasted it and welded in some new steel. It's not pretty, but should hold up. And it won't be visible anyway.

POR15 on.

And behind the grille.

[metz]

At this point I've finally found a painter willing to do the job, so lots of work to get it ready for primer.

The battery tray was quite rough.

But some elbow grease and POR15 cleaned it up nicely.

Rear wheel wells cleaned up and straightened as best I could.

Coated up.

Below too.

Contiuing cleaning up the engine bay.

[metz]

Full speed ahead during easter to be able to hand it over for primer.

The front is, like mentioned previously, nowhere near perfect. We tried to straighten it - but the area with the plaster wouldn't come out when pushing with a 2x4 from the inside.

So we started chipping away, and plaster was thick! almost 10mm at the most. With bare metal, the was nothing holding back the big dent anymore, and we were able to make it more straight than it was with all the plaster. At least a better starting point for the painter.

More cleaning up years of dirt and grime.

Stripped the doors and started sanding.

Anders once again helped out an evening.

Sliding door before.

And after.

[metz]

A proper milestone. Bus back on the trailer, heading to the painter for the first time.

What do you mean not straight?

A couple of days later. Zinked all the bare metal areas and the primed everything with epoxy. Painter on the right and the always helpful old man on the left.

Since the painter didn't have room for the bus from during the whole process, it would be back and forth a few times, but that also meant I could do work on it in between. It was now easter and the goal was to have it painted before summer. Super happy to see it in another color.

And back in the garage.

[KentABQ]

This is a great transformation, Metz. I love panel vans, and yours will be a showstopper, I'm sure. Nice work.
_________________
-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[mark d]

enjoying your thread. good luck to you
_________________
1972ish westfalia

"what good are tractors without violins ?" jose figueres

[Trashman]

Nice! I think panels are my favorite. Do you think you're going to go back to Neptune Blue or is a color change in the future?

Great work by the both of you btw!
_________________
Bagged 1968 Neptune Blue "Deluxe"

[TDCTDI]

[Trashman]

Hahahaha. It's crazy that the battery tray is that good compared to the rest of what you've done. Here's what mine looked like before I replaced it (with no other body rust to speak of).

_________________
Bagged 1968 Neptune Blue "Deluxe"

[metz]

@TDCTDI, Trashman
Haha, true! Although the right 1/3 of it is new, the rest was solid so we kept it.

@kentps, mark d, Trashman
Cheers, starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

I made a couple of sketches on the direction it's heading. I was seriously considering the original color, but I was just fed up with the blue.

So Savannah Beige with Cloud White roof and bumpers.

[metz]

No time to chill. For the next trip to the painter I wanted to have the inside prepped as well.

The spare wheel well had been bugging me. Welded up a couple of small rusted holes, and wire brushed as good I could.

Prepped for the last bit I had left of POR15.

And finally two nice coats. Feels good!

More prepping at the front to get it ready for primer. Before.

After.

Also cleaned up in the back. Including small holes and dents and matting down paint.

[metz]

After wrapping up the prep of the body, I found the dash and started dismounting and cleaning.

Knobs cleaning up nicely.

The plastic middle piece was full of cracks, so I ordered a new one.

Some bonus holes and surface rust on the two dash panels.

Welded and sanded down.

Dismounted that last bits of the front still attached to the bus.

And got them ready for paint.

[metz]

Then it was the bumpers turn – and they had obviously been doing their job for many years. I'm not gonna use the trailer hitch, so will sell that and get regular bumper mounts.

Started stripping and straightening. Quite time consuming, but nice to work outside in the first really warm day of the year.

Hammered and used the vise to get it as straight as I could before starting on the front bumper. At least an improvement.

Then welding up holes I don't need.

Front.

Not complaining that the front sides and mounts fittet in the blaster cabin

Then picking up the bus from its second trip to the painter. He worked on the front for a couple of days, which was the big crux of the job according to him. Great to see the progress, and we were on schedule to have it painted before summer.

[metz]

Last trip to the painter. He now acquired a place to store it, so he could work on it over the course of a few weeks so I didn't have to trailer it back and forth. Meanwhile I was working on other bits in the garage - but this is way more exciting!

The painter had been putting in crazy hours to make it as straight as possible, and it's starting to look good!

Then I jacked it up on stands and removed the wheels so he could paint the wheel wells and as much as the underbody as possible. Nice to get epoxy and car paint on all that new metal.

Then he showed me some bits he already painted. The color is amazing.

That was late May.

[metz]

Wheel wells and engine bay primed and painted. Finally all those dirty jobs are starting to pay off.

Engine bay before:

After:

Wheels wells before:

After:

The plan is to use Tectyl in the wheel wells, but when I had the chance to get them painted in the new color - why not? They should hold up well now. I didn't have the chance to use seam sealer before paint, so that will have to go on top.